Lexington, KY - Incidentally, Ken Littrell, the owner of three regional Clean Sweep Car Wash locations and the elbow grease behind the company's annual blood drive with the Kentucky Blood Center, can't participate in his own brainchild.
"I do some traveling with some different mission organizations, which precludes you from being able to donate when you do that," he said. Blood donors for the Clean Sweep Donor Round Up receive a free car wash and other prizes from over 90 local businesses.
Some of Littrell's travels have taken him to western Bangladesh, where he observed an organization's micro-loan program, which makes small business loans to women of the region, and southern Ecuador, where he worked in helping indigenous people start and market their own businesses.
"The biggest business we got started was where they raised guinea pigs and sold them for food consumption to restaurants," Littrell said. And how did the fare taste? "I guess I could say they all taste like chicken, but I didn't try any."
Now in its sixth year, the Clean Sweep Donor Round Up has nearly 90 local, regional and national businesses involved, with more than $70,000 in incentives to be awarded to blood donors. The Kentucky Blood Center expects nearly 900 donors to participate during the first week of April. "I've always felt that you need to be plugged into the community, helping whatever way you can." Littrell said. "Obviously there is a universal need for blood donations. Probably everybody knows someone within their family that has had some kind of surgery, or they needed blood."
In 2007, Kentucky Blood Center named Littrell as its National Philanthropy Day honoree.
When he's not helping small businesses in developing countries around the world, running his own small business locally, or organizing large donor initiatives, Littrell and his wife, Peggy, who is the president of the Bluegrass Cycling Club, can likely be found biking through some of the more scenic locales in the area.
The Clean Sweep Donor Round Up is April 4 - 11. For more information on how to make a donation, visit www.kybloodcenter.org.
Clean Sweep Car Wash has two Lexington locations (550 S. Broadway; 2899 Richmond Rd.) and one Richmond location (612 Eastern Byp.). For more information, call (859) 254-0483.
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